I had heard of another battlefront in the waronreligion(TM), and I note the CNS news brief on it today. Pardon my interruption of Holy Week with a dollop of cynicism, but I truly wish Catholics, especially our schools, would get our priorities in order before getting steamed about a secular university system. I remember we were riding high on Catholic high schools in Kansas City the last decade. But I also remember three key roles in the Good Friday Passion one year which were to be filled by high school students whose coach called a practice Good Friday morning.

Two assignments before that, we had cooperation from the public school district on limiting school activities each Wednesday evening for “Church Night,” but the Catholic high school didn’t always see fit to observe it.

Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre:

(T)he changes, if adopted, will force these persons to choose between practice of their faith and taking examinations, attending/teaching classes or partaking in the other campus duties, responsibilities and activities.

Of course they will. But Catholic schools have offered similar choices to those who want to practice their faith and practice their school activities for decades.

Looking over a few web sites of Long Island high schools, I did notice two are playing a softball match on Holy Thursday. Probably a day game, though. Everybody else looks pretty good. Winter break was the week of Ash Wednesday. Easter Break runs from Holy Thursday through the following week. One school–and probably more–gives Ascension Thursday as a school holiday. ‘Course, you might wonder how many more teens don’t go to Mass on the holy day since they have it free of classes.

And with a nod in Bishop Murphy’s favor, it’s not like parishes can offer Masses at all times of the day to accommodate those who work, study, or play on a holy day or even a Sunday. Is it a real challenge? For a minority of Catholics, I’d say it is. But then again, it’s not the 1950’s , is it?

2 Responses to Catholics, Free Yourselves

A little background: there was historically a practical *secular* reason why schools would be closed on the holydays of the dominant religions of its area: because too many students and faculty would be taking the days off anyway, so it made no sense to run the PP&E for those days.

OH good lord. It’s another instance of Real Catholics only attending Catholic (rather, Catholic Enough) schools and universities and Not Real Catholics going everywhere else. I did my doctorate (which I realize will lose me cred with some bloggers) at a secular university, and nobody had a problem if I said I wasn’t going to be around on Good Friday. Living in a pluralistic society means living with everyone else. For those who don’t want that, I hear there’s a town in the middle of some Florida swampland…

about Todd Flowerday

A Roman Catholic lay person, married (since 1996), with one adopted child (since 2001). I serve in worship and spiritual life in a midwestern university parish.

about John Donaghy

John is a lay missionary since 2007 with a parish in western Honduras. Before that he served in campus ministry and social justice ministry in Iowa. His ministry blog is http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com

He also blogs reflections on the lectionary and saints/heroes/events of the date at http://walktheway.wordpress.com

He'll be a long-term contributor here analyzing the Latin American bishops' document from their 2007 Aparecida Conference.